Born sometime before 97 BC,[1] son of a Publius Lentulus,[2] his origins are otherwise unknown, though he was most likely a member of the patrician Cornelii Lentuli branch of the gens Cornelia.
[9] Lentulus' rise through the cursus honorum of political office is not now known prior to his election, during the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus, as Praetor for 58 BC.
[10] During his term of office Clodius, now a tribune of the people, moved against his enemy Cicero on the basis that the latter, as consul of 63 BC, had put Roman citizens to death without trial.
[12] In 51 BC he stood for election to the prestigious priestly board of fifteen men in charge of the Sibylline Books (Quindecimviri sacris faciundis),[13] but was defeated by Publius Cornelius Dolabella (to the amusement of Cicero's correspondent, Marcus Caelius Rufus[14]).
In 50 BC he was elected consul for the following year[15] alongside G. Claudius Marcellus, as opponents to Caesar,[16] and was an active and vocal participant in the increasingly hysterical scenes[17] in the senate in late 50 and January 49 as Caesar sought to secure a safe consulship whilst a reactionary group of senators sought to have him stripped of command.